GALLERY: Japandroids at the Lifetime Collective

BC noiseniks and current Pitchfork/NME/Spin luvvies Brian King (guitar/vocals) and David Prowse (drums/vocals) from the Japandroids played a bonkers set on Friday, April 30 at the Lifetime Collective Space in Vancouver. By “space”, I mean “rammed-full tin can warehouse with a bigger balcony than the room the stage was in, that’s run by a trendy clothing shop.” And by bonkers I mean, yeah, the Japandroids are a pretty awesome garage-y punk-rock band. Brian King was hyper, talked a mile a minute, inserted a few random words in between “fucks” then launched into “The Boys Are Leaving Town” at breakneck speed. Niiice.

Not so fun on the bonkers scale were the moshing kids, dangerously swaying light stands, puking girls, record-store clerk beards, and PBR-swilling gadflys in a venue utterly unequipped for a band that should be playing, you know, an actual venue. But that’s what you get when hometown heroes (awww, was that Prowse outside in a red cardigan welcoming his family members earlier?) play a party-with-tickets and go on after midnight to a battered crowd.

Very punk rock, then. And perfectly enjoyable if you, like me, were wedged up so close to the stage that you had to protect King’s water bottles. Oh and the set list? “We’re gonna fucking play the fucking album from start to finish,” said King, and that’s mostly what they did, though a definite YAHHHRAWK moment came predictably with “Art Czars” from this year’s 7″. “Here’s your money back/here’s your punk rock back” they shouted.

For the venue, I’da taken the money back. But for the punk rock, the Japandroids can keep it. They’re doing pretty well with it.

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2 Comments

Fucking rad show. Agree and disagree with you on the venue. The chaos of the whole night was a big part of what made it so great. It took things to the edge of destroying itself and then just teetered there for an hour.